Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Goodreads Synopsis
A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.
Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.

By Jo Treggiari

Hardcover, 344 pages

Published June 1st 2011 by Scholastic

3.75 out of 5 stars

Genre: YA Dystopia

 

Ashes, Ashes was a pretty quick dystopian read.
It's about a girl named Lucy Halloway who is living on her own (as in surviving on her own) after her family and anyone she knows has been killed off from a plague.

The book begins with a rather gruesome scene that had me slightly repulsed of her making herself some turtle food. Or maybe I was just repulsed because even thinking of eating turtle doesn't do anything for my stomach. But, this first scene pretty much told me how desperate Lucy was for food, how scarce food really was for her, and how difficult it was to be surviving by herself.

It's this same day that she gets chased by some wild dogs, and finds herself rescued by a boy--the first human contact she's had in over basically six months.
Aidan was charming, with a crooked smile that so many boys in young adult novels seem to have (but it's okay, because I love crooked smiles:) ).

From here, the story gets interesting, because we finally have some dialogue going on.
She learns from Aidan that he lives with a bunch of other survivors in a place called Hell's Gate.
Lucy likes living on her own, and has managed to do so for a year now, but when the tsunami comes, she has no choice but to flee her home and go find Aidan at Hell's Gate.

Now, the evil people in the book are called Sweepers. They basically come in vans and take away any survivors back with them to the doctors. The people they take with them never come back.
And we'll learn towards the end of the book that Lucy is something special, and she's wanted for it. The plot sounds formulaic--girl is unique but she doesn't know it. And it is.
I don't want to give too much away, although I felt like the book's description had spoiled the climax for me. It was kind of predictable, but that's fine. I still enjoyed the book.
And the supporting characters were enjoyable too.

I just want to give some praise for the cover, though. It's so pretty when you actually look at it up close in your hands! Aidan is standing in a posture, facing this disaster in front of him, like he's ready to battle anything that comes his way. Lucy is beside him, almost gazing in the distance like she's thinking about her future. And Aidan is right beside her. It's almost like, together, they are unstoppable, or something like that. And the buildings toppling over before them, with all that water flooding? It's really amazing, and I commend the cover artists for such an amazing cover. I really liked that little bit of sunlight in the far off distance. Like there's hope even amidst chaos and disaster.

So, the book was a nice, light read (for a dystopia, that is), nothing too much for me to ponder about. I'm not sure if there's a sequel or not, but regardless, I liked the way the book ended here.